It seemed a bit far-fetched that Mr. Cattelan, an epic jokester who was just 50 at the time, would stop making art altogether. Now his name is listed among those in the exhibitions opening at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, next month, timed to the contemporary art fair.

The Beyeler Web site shows a 2001 sculpture of Mr. Cattelan mischievously peeking out of a hole, but no details about the show are given aside from its dates — June 8 through Oct. 6. It will be on view at the same time as a scholarly Max Ernst retrospective that the Beyeler has organized with the Albertina in Vienna.

Pressed for details, Mr. Cattelan would say only that the show is titled “Kaputt” and that it will focus on a single old piece, “presented in a new way.” He also hinted that the old piece “is a classic subject in art history,” and divulged one other detail: it has fur and is “sort of new in a serious but funny way.”

Samuel Keller, director of the Beyeler Foundation, spilled a tiny bit more: The show is named after a 1944 book by the Italian writer Curzio Malaparte, an account of World War II from behind the German lines. He also hinted that Mr. Cattelan’s show has to do with a horse. (His taxidermied horses have appeared in several museums.)

That “Kaputt” will be on view at the same time as the Ernst retrospective is deliberate, Mr. Keller said, “since so much of Ernst’s work is about history, memory and translating it into his time.”

CURATOR TO JOIN DEALERS

After months of rumors it’s official: Paul Schimmel, the former chief curator of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, is becoming a partner at Hauser & Wirth, the dealers who run galleries in Zurich, London and New York.

While Mr. Schimmel said he considered moving to another institution after he unexpectedly left the Museum of Contemporary Art last year, he explained that “Hauser & Wirth is the place I felt most comfortable,” adding that “not only are they involved with a group of artists that I’ve had powerful relationships with, but the gallery has significant long-term plans.”

Those plans call for opening a space in Los Angeles, to be called Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. While the dealers do not have a location yet, they hope to open one by 2015.

When the West Coast space is operational, it will be yet another high-profile gallery in Los Angeles, joining Gagosian — a veteran there — and relative newcomers like Matthew Marks and L&M Arts.

Photo

An image from a 2001 Maurizio Cattelan installation that accompanies the announcement of his new exhibition.Credit
Zeno Zotti, Maurizio Cattelan's Archive

For more than two decades Mr. Schimmel has been one of the most influential forces in the Los Angeles art scene, with longstanding ties to prominent artists there like Paul McCarthy, Chris Burden, Ed Ruscha and Catherine Opie. He has organized significant exhibitions, including thematic shows like “Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981” in 2011.

Despite the gallery’s Swiss roots, Hauser & Wirth represents a surprising number of Los Angeles artists, including Mr. McCarthy, Diana Thater, Thomas Houseago, Sterling Ruby and Rachel Khedoori, as well as the estates of Allan Kaprow and Jason Rhoades.

Plans for the new space include organizing museum-style exhibitions, which are increasingly prevalent in blue-chip galleries. “These kinds of shows already exist in London and New York, but less so in Los Angeles,” Mr. Schimmel said.

The Doris C. Freedman Plaza on Fifth Avenue and 60th Street, at an entrance to Central Park, may be a quintessentially New York backdrop, but the nonprofit Public Art Fund, which organizes exhibitions there, is determined to make it an international platform.

Currently plaza visitors are greeted by two pairs of cast bronze grimacing male figures bound by rope and balancing on a tripod of sticks, works by the German artist Thomas Schütte. From Sept. 10 through Feb. 16 a sculpture by the Brazilian artist Iran do Espirito Santo will take center stage.

Unlike Mr. Schütte’s work, which is figurative, Mr. do Espirito Santo’s is architectural. His work, “Playground,” is a Minimalist, 13-foot cube of cast concrete designed to resemble large gray blocks with parts of the corners missing.

The fund is also organizing a group show at City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan. Called “Lightness of Being,” it includes new and commissioned works by Franz West, Cristian Andersen, James Angus, Olaf Breuning, Daniel Buren, Alex Hubbard, Alicja Kwade, Sarah Lucas, Ugo Rondinone, David Shrigley and Gary Webb.

On view July 25 through Dec. 13, the show will include five pear-shaped forms by Mr. West, who died last year. Other artists are playing with the idea of the found object. Mr. Angus, for example, has recreated a John Deere tractor, while Mr. Shrigley has cast an old pair of flip-flops in steel.

A PETTIBON BILLBOARD

The billboard next to the High Line at 10th Avenue and 18th Street in Chelsea is an ever-changing tableau. Among the images passers-by have seen are an old woman’s manicured hand, zebras on a snowy mountaintop and a $100,000 bill.

The next billboard, on view June 3 through July 1, will be about sports, a first since the program started in 2009. It will display a baseball drawing by the Los Angeles artist Raymond Pettibon. Called “No Title (Safe he called ...),” from 2010, it features Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers sliding home.

“We’ve done a lot of photography and graphic works,” said Cecilia Alemani, director of High Line Art. “This is the first time we’ve done a drawing.”

Correction: May 23, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the first name of an artist. It is Cristian Andersen, not Christian.

A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2013, on page C22 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Retired’ Artist Pops His Head Back Up. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe